Amazon Global Selling Announces Medical Supplies as One of Five Strategic Categories for Amazon Business in 2021

On September 15, 2020, the “Global Business Procurement, Quality Empowerment—2020 Amazon Business China Seller Online Summit” was grandly held. This conference marked the first time that Amazon Global Selling hosted an online summit specifically tailored for sellers in the business procurement sector, attracting ten thousand Chinese manufacturing enterprises, business procurement sellers, and industry experts to convene in the cloud. Together, they explored cutting-edge trends in global business procurement and shared industry insights. At the summit, Amazon Global Selling announced that medical supplies would become one of the five strategic categories for Amazon Business in 2021 (the other four being industrial products, school supplies, commercial furniture, and IT supplies). It also introduced category opportunities and high-quality industrial clusters, providing direction and recommendations for Chinese sellers’ category development, thereby helping them seize the blue-ocean opportunities presented by the new model of online business procurement.

Cindy Tai, Vice President of Amazon and Head of Amazon Global Selling for the Asia-Pacific region, stated, “In recent years, driven by innovations in internet technology and the rapid growth of e-commerce, procurement models among global enterprise and institutional customers are undergoing significant changes. These customers seek a business purchasing experience comparable to that of consumer shopping. The impact of the pandemic this year has further accelerated the digital transformation of business procurement from offline to online channels. We have observed that many Chinese companies have seized the opportunities presented by online B2B procurement, actively expanding their presence across global marketplaces, demonstrating strong potential and competitive advantages, and achieving outstanding performance in numerous key categories. We look forward to welcoming more high-quality Chinese manufacturers and brands to join the expansion of cross-border B2B procurement, working together with Amazon Global Selling to pioneer a new era in global business procurement.”

In recent years, scenario-based online procurement by enterprises has become a trend, with strong growth in new cross-border commercial purchasing models targeting enterprise end customers. The 2021 strategic categories released at this summit conducted a comprehensive analysis of blue-ocean categories within global scenario-based commercial procurement, evaluating them across three dimensions: drivers of online procurement, market potential of the categories, and competitiveness of Chinese sellers. This analysis identified five strategic categories for Chinese sellers—namely industrial products, medical supplies, school supplies, commercial furniture, and IT supplies—while also providing recommendations for business layout and buyer insights.

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Notably, medical supplies have been designated as one of the five strategic categories, a development worthy of attention. Currently, the global market for medical supplies and the medical e-commerce sector are experiencing rapid growth, making them highly contested arenas. Earlier this year, the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to temporary global shortages of medical and epidemic prevention materials, while high-demand essential goods also faced supply constraints. To help alleviate this situation, Amazon Business launched the “COVID-19 Supplies” channel in April across the United States, Europe, Japan, and other regions. This initiative was specifically tailored for hospitals and government agencies, enabling frontline personnel to procure medical supplies online in a timely manner. During this period, numerous Chinese medical supply sellers, such as Winner Medical, Intco Medical, Jingbai, and Kangbo, leveraged their manufacturing and supply chain advantages to provide standardized medical and epidemic prevention materials, along with other high-demand products, to overseas medical and government institutions through Amazon Business. Their efforts helped mitigate overseas shortages and contributed to the global fight against the pandemic.

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According to Amazon statistics, procurement demand from enterprise customers across four major verticals—commercial enterprises, educational institutions, healthcare organizations, and government agencies—is showing an upward trend. Among these, commercial enterprise customers are the primary purchasers of categories such as IT supplies and industrial products. Educational institutions continue to see growing demand for school supplies and commercial furniture. Meanwhile, influenced by the pandemic, the rise of online education has rapidly increased demand for various IT products. With continuous global investment in the healthcare sector, healthcare organizations’ demand for medical supplies and industrial products is rising year by year. In addition, government agencies are steadily advancing paperless and intelligent office operations, leading to a significant increase in IT supply expenditures. Furthermore, during the pandemic, government centralized procurement of medical supplies and school supplies saw rapid growth, and related categories driven by stockpiling needs will continue to grow.

Furthermore, to assist sellers in category development and support the transformation of manufacturing enterprises, Amazon Business has penetrated various industrial clusters across China to identify high-quality Chinese products with significant potential for global B2B procurement. For instance, medical devices from the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions, as well as medical consumables from the industrial clusters in Hubei and Henan provinces, have been selected for Amazon Business due to their competitive advantages derived from these specialized industrial ecosystems. The development of these distinctive industrial clusters will lay a solid foundation for the international alignment of supply and demand.

At the summit, heads of B2B procurement for Amazon Business’s North America, Europe, and Japan marketplaces shared with Chinese sellers the latest trends in online B2B sourcing across these regions. They analyzed changes in purchasing behaviors among overseas corporate and institutional buyers in the “new normal,” as well as their evolving needs. For bulk purchases, corporate and institutional buyers place greater emphasis on sellers’ supply capacity, product quality, and logistics support.

Furthermore, the summit invited industry experts to share their insights and analyze the development trends of cross-border B2B procurement in the post-pandemic era. Meanwhile, distinguished seller representatives and senior Amazon Business executives jointly explored pathways for corporate transformation. They addressed key topics of great interest to sellers, including the advantages and challenges of Chinese manufacturers going global, as well as product selection and operations in cross-border B2B procurement. By providing both trend analysis and practical guidance, the summit aimed to comprehensively assist Chinese sellers in diversifying their business growth models and seizing opportunities in the untapped B2B procurement market.

Amazon Business is Amazon’s one-stop commercial procurement platform for enterprise and institutional buyers worldwide, dedicated to providing comprehensive solutions for business purchasing. Since its launch in 2015, Amazon Business has achieved rapid growth, covering nine major global marketplaces: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and India.

Amazon Business serves millions of business and institutional buyers across diverse industries worldwide, including hospitals, universities, Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, restaurants, and laboratories. This diverse and extensive base of business and institutional customers has expanded procurement demands, creating abundant commercial opportunities for sellers in various sectors on Amazon Business. Leveraging their supply chain advantages, Chinese sellers have become a key force in providing high-quality products to business and institutional buyers globally, as commercial procurement continues to shift online and procurement needs grow increasingly diversified. Looking ahead, Amazon Business will continue to deepen its local services, helping Chinese sellers efficiently connect with business and institutional buyers around the world and seize global commercial opportunities.